Plans are of limited value, but planning and preparation are everything, yes? No matter how fantastic your product is or how high you set your customer service expectations, customer service issues will inevitably come up.
You must be very good at responding to customer service complaints.
If you have a good policy for responding to customer complaints, your efforts can pay off in droves.
The cost of replacing an item or offering a refund is often recouped by the loyalty you receive in return when you go above and beyond the call of duty to fix the situation.
Watch this short video from Shep to learn about Customer Service issues.
Meanwhile, research has shown customers who have had a complaint satisfactorily resolved are extremely likely to recommend a business to others – a bit of free advertising and a potential bonus to be recorded by your customer management software.
To be sure, pure “scripts” by employees are the antithesis of great service. However, given the variable nature of interacting with customers, it’s easy to see how support champs can certainly benefit from some forward thinking in dealing with tough scenarios.
This is where flexible responses—instead of pure scripts—can be quite useful.
They allow your employees to have some idea of what to say to customers in a tough situation, but also give them the flexibility to adapt and add their personality.
Here are some tips on where to begin with customer service issues arise:
Take all issues seriously
Respond to a customer issue promptly and with due attention to convey the message that you take them all seriously. Establish a standard system for logging and handling complaints to ensure that all employees are using a similar approach.
You can use your customer management software as part of this system.
When a product isn’t available
No eCommerce store owner or support champion likes to tell a customer that an item isn’t currently available, but there is a much better way to go about it.
One of the most important skills in interacting with customers is the use of positive language.
Here’s an example: let’s say a customer contacts you with interest in a particular product, but that product happens to be back ordered until next month.
Without positive language: “I can’t get you that product until next month; it is back-ordered and unavailable at this time.”
With positive language: “That product will be available next month. I can place the order for you right now and make sure that it is sent to you as soon as it reaches our warehouse!”
Positive languages eschew negative phrases (“I can’t…”) and instead places emphasis on the solution, which is what the customer cares about.
Try finding places in your response where a lot of negative languages is present (“We don’t do that”) and see where positive language can be substituted.
Don’t make excuses
Concentrate on offering next steps and potential solutions to the customer’s problem, rather than trying to explain why something went wrong in the first place.
When product features won’t work
Customers can often have some valuable insights into how your product is used and how it could be improved, but your product’s vision is your responsibility. Thus the final call is left to you.
If it is very obvious that a feature request a customer has sent in won’t make the cut, you have to be able to tell them so. Saying, “We’ll take a look!” gives false hope that can end up with a customer checking in weeks later, only to be disappointed again.
The truth is, you don’t need to be worried about a mass exodus of customers just because you regularly say “no” to many product features.
Identify with the customer’s point of view
Step out of your business-owner shoes and imagine yourself in the customer’s place. How would you feel? Would you be upset? Be honest with yourself in your assessment and let these feelings inform your response.
When transferring a customer
There isn’t a single consumer out there who likes hearing, “Please hold while we transfer you. Your call is very important to us.”
The problem is, sometimes you do need to transfer customers to help them better. The problem is that many businesses don’t seek to help customers understand why they are being transferred.
Acknowledge their concerns
Even if you don’t agree with what a customer is saying, it is important to demonstrate you have listened to their point of view and can understand where they are coming from.
Your language may vary based on your assessment of the situation, ranging from “Sorry, we completely missed the mark” if your business is clearly in the wrong to “I see that we did not fulfill your expectations” if the customer’s complaint is unwarranted.
You don’t know?
You shouldn’t beat yourself up for not knowing an answer. After all, a support rep’s responsibility is to have the tenacity to make things right, not to be perfect (especially true if you’re new).
The mistake many support reps make, however, is in using the knee-jerk “I don’t know” response, which doesn’t help the customer. The customer may be sympathetic that you don’t know, but they’re not interested in hearing about it.
Favors that cannot be accomplished
Can’t you bend the rules just this once?!”
To be frank, most requests from customers are very reasonable, and every effort should be made to make them happy.
Bob Farrell describes this as “giving them the pickle,” a phrase which refers to a letter he received from an unhappy customer who wasn’t able to get an extra pickle for his hamburger.
We call these “frugal wows,” but the idea is the same—a small request fulfilled can often leave a very positive impact on a customer, which is why it’s almost always worth it to just ‘give them the pickle.’
Responding to customer service issues … defective product
Having a purchase come up short is very disheartening from the customer’s perspective. I’m sure we’ve all ran into this scenario: after finally convincing ourselves to pull the trigger on a purchase, we wait with excitement until it’s delivered…only to have it arrive broken.
We all internally recognize that even great companies can’t build and ship everything perfectly, but it’s just so frustrating to be the person on the receiving end of a dud.
Showing empathy to the customer’s situation thus becomes very important, following with an immediate explanation of how you’re going to fix the situation. Consider the following example:
I’m so sorry about that, that’s very disappointing! There might have been a slight mistake in the manufacturing process, or perhaps it was damaged while being shipped. Can I send a new one out to you right away?”
While long, it completes three important objectives: it empathizes with the customer’s frustrating experience, it explains what the problem might be (instead of having a customer assume, “we make crap products”), and it offers a clear and immediate solution.
Depending on what you sell and how you conduct business, you might also add, “or should I send you a full refund?” Either way, know that in this situation it’s the ability to relate to a customer that counts.
Solicit suggestions for next steps
If you are not sure how to respond to a customer’s complaint, you may want to turn the question back around on them and solicit suggestions for a next step.
If you don’t like their answer, you are under no obligation to honor their request.
Customer service complaints … be realistic with your promises
If you can’t do something, don’t promise that you will. Only commit to offering real solutions to the customer’s problem.
Thank the customer
Because so few dissatisfied customers take the time and effort to let a business know how they feel, it is important to thank them for doing so.
If you want to go one step further, you could follow up with a letter down the line that explains how their feedback has helped you improve your operations. Include a coupon or gift certificate as a token of your appreciation.
Customer service complaints … how to effectively close
One of my favorite tips for dealing with customers is to make sure that you always“close” a conversation. This has nothing to do with closing a sale, and everything to do with making sure the conversation with a customer is complete.
This is important because as you’ll recall, the average business only hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers. You needn’t add to that harrowing statistic by leaving people you’ve helped with an unsolved dilemma.
Your willingness to ensure that a customer is leaving perfectly happy shows them three important things:
You care about getting it right.
You’re willing to keep going until you get it right.
The customer is the one who determines what “right” is.
Try ending your conversation with a phrase like the following:
Excellent! I’m glad we were able to get that sorted out for you. Before you go, was there anything else I could assist you with today? I’m happy to help.”
Customers who have lost their cool
Support champions are often required to act as lightning rods: to take the brunt of an emotional, angry customer despite the fact that it is not their fault.
Sometimes this anger from customers is unjustified, and other times they have a cause for their actions. Either way, it’s often quite hard to win back a severely angry customer (even the best businesses can’t make everyone happy), but the smart folks at Telephone Doctor have a great system called “ASAP” for dealing with these most difficult of customers:
Apologize sincerely: “I’m sorry” is a mandatory response in these situations, even if it isn’t your fault. Consider your “I’m truly sorry about that” as a personal apology to the customer that the experience wasn’t up to their expectations, not that you are to blame.
Sympathize: As you might have guessed, many times angry customers are just as interested (if not more interested) in hearing that someone empathizes with their situation over getting the actual problem fixed.
Even if you cannot understand a customer (“Why are they so angry?”), you can imagine how you’d like to be treated if you happened to be that upset. Even small phrases like, “I understand how upsetting that must have been,” can have an impact on getting the customer to realize that you’re on their team in this pursuit to make things right.
